Reaping The Potential Of Lesser Known Timber

obmar · Site Admin Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 5697

September 11, 2007 09:49 AM

Reaping The Potential Of Lesser Known Timber

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 11 (Bernama) -- The forestry sector is a vital component of the Malaysian economy. In 2005, it contributed RM21.5 billion in revenue compared to RM19.8 bilion in 2004.

With about 60 percent of the land area of the country still covered with natural forest and about 10.6 million hectares being marked as production forest, this sector is expected to continue contributing significantly to the country's coffer.

According to Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), in Peninsula Malaysia alone there are 2,650 tree species with 890 of them can be harvested for their wood.

Of the 890 species, only about 50 are well recognised and are being traded individually, while the rest are simply traded as mixed hardwoods or "chap-char" (a Hokkien term).

LESSER KNOWN TIMBER

Tree harvesting is still being carried out in virgin forests that are rich in large sized dipterocarp species. However, it is anticipated that as early as 2010, most of the primary production forests in Peninsula Malaysia would be completely exploited.

"In fact, most states have already resorted to their second-growth (logged over) or second rotation forests (SRF) for relogging. Other states may have to do the same soon," said Lim Seng Choon, Head of FRIM's Wood Performance Branch under the Processing and Wood Technology Programme.

The second rotation forest will likely to consist of what is referred to as Lesser Known Timber (LKT).

Lim during an interview with Bernama recently, names such as merangsi, mempening, kasah, medang, kellat, kedondong, mahang, kelempayan, mempisang, mempening and surian may be unknown to many but in the years to come these wood may be much sought after by the timber industry.

"The industry has been using these Lesser Known Timber but they were not familiar with their names and so they just called them Chap-char," explained Lim.

CHOOSE TO IGNORE

FRIM encouraged the use of LKT since some 20 years ago but as Lim said, people were not taking heed of the call seriously as at that time timber supply was abundant.

"We have been telling people about the LKT but of course people were not listening as we still have a lot of meranti, a lot of merbau, balau, keruing etc so much so they don't bother.

"It only became serious probably about five years ago. Last year we saw a lot of this happening, from the timber industry in particular as they became more concerned," said Lim.

He told Bernama that the local supply of good timber had dwindled and this could be seen from the present trend where more and more tropical timber being bought from Sabah and Sarawak besides from neighbouring countries such as Laos and Cambodia.

"We also have Malaysian companies doing logging in Papua New Guinea, Guyana and Cameroon to get the timber supply," he added.

IMMENSE POTENTIAL

Over the years, FRIM has intensified its efforts in studying the potentials of LKT and to gather as much technical data as possible to help and educate the timber industry.

"Our effort is to make known to the people there is such wood as mempening and we have this technical data to back up that its properties are comparable to some well known timber such as keruing," explained Lim.

According to him, mempening is equivalent to the European oak and has good potential for decorative purposes including furniture making and flooring.

Other LKT which Lim cited as good for decorative purposes are merangsi, kasah and surian.

"Kasah for example is a light coloured timber and the Japanese like this timber very much. We are running short of this timber called ramin (white coloured timber) so much so it has been classified as endangered species. Maybe we can use this kasah timber as a substitute for ramin," he explained further.

Another LKT which has shown good potential is surian which is very popular in Australia and considered equivalent to the Australian cedar.

Other lighter timbers like ara and chempaka can perhaps be used for the production of veneer for plywood making and others which do not require much strength.

MAJOR SETBACK

Despite LKT's immense potential, one major setback is that the species are scattered in the forest and the number per species is very small.

The limited supply of such timber makes the industry apprehensive in exploiting LKT's full potential.

On the possibility of large scale planting of LKT, FRIM's senior research officer Samsudin Musa opined that the industry will plant whatever trees that are in high demand and grows well.

"But I am sure if there is a high demand for a particular species like sentang, everybody would start planting it. Take gaharu for example," he added.

NO CHOICE

The LKT, according to Samsudin is becoming more dominant and FRIM would be conducting a detailed study to see whether large scale planting is applicable in all logged forests.

There are various reasons, he explained why the forests are dominated by LKT. One would be how the forests were logged, what was the cutting regime previously and whether there were sufficient residual commercial trees left behind instead of clearing the whole area.

"So what was removed in the earlier cut produces what we have today. Some areas are quite good in the sense they follow the correct cutting regime, some are not.

According to Samsudin, in areas where the canopy has been overly opened LKT species like mahang will start to grow.

If the site conditions are right, they can grow very fast and colonise the forests and prevent other commercial species from growing.

NEXT STEP

Now that the industry knows the existence of LKT with some having huge potential, the issue that needs to be addressed urgently is probably the efforts to promote and find better use for them.

FRIM on the other hand would also want to know what the next step would be after its years of research on the LKT.

The answers to some of the questions raised here could well crop up at the management of second rotation forest seminar to be organised by FRIM probably this December.

-- BERNAMA